This invention is concerned with inhibiting the adhesion of the bacteria responsible for dental plaque and caries.
Actinomyces viscosus and Streptococcus sanguis are bacteria populating the buccal cavity which are responsible for the initiation and formation of dental plaque. With Actinomyces naeslundii, they form a group of bacteria which are capable of colonizing above all the buccal cavity. They play a leading part in the sequence of events leading to the diseases associated with dental plaque, such as root caries, gingivitis, periodontitis and paradontolysis. In addition, Streptococcus mutans is the principal pathogen associated with dental caries which grows once dental plaque has started.
Among the factors entering into the mechanisms by which dental plaque is formed by the strains A. viscosus and S. sanguis, mention should be made of their properties of adhering to the buccal epithelial cells, to the surface of teeth coated with saliva and their tendency to form coaggregates with one another and with A. naeslundii. Although these mechanisms are extremely complex, it has been found that A. naeslundii recognizes a receptor containing galactose or galactosamine on the epithelial cells through adhesines likewise expressed by A. viscosus and termed type 2 pili. Other works have shown that the co-aggregation reactions between S. sanguis and these two Actinomyces species could also be based on the recognition of type 2 pili/galactose.
In simple terms, it would appear on the one hand that, in the prior art, the conventional inhibitor of bacterial adhesion governed by type 2pili is lactose acting through its galactose moiety. On the other hand, adhesion mechanisms based on other factors, for example bringing the solid surface of teeth into play, are instrumental in the formation of dental plaque.
US-PS 4,579,736 relates to the preparation of a factor for inhibiting the growth and the metabolism of the bacteria responsible for forming dental plaque, S. sanguis and A. viscosus, comprising breaking up the cell walls of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (which is a bacterium present in the final phase of periodontitis) by an ultrasonic treatment and collecting the factor in question by centrifugation and decantation of the supernatant liquid phase, purification thereof by dialysis and drying by freeze-drying. Published European patent application 184,121 relates to a dental-care additive which is intended to be incorporated in foods and medicaments containing sucrose and which consists essentially of a mixture of lactose and galactose obtained by fermentation of whey with Lactobacillus leichmannii.